Skip to main content
Software Engineering

Return to Answer

replaced http://programmers.stackexchange.com/ with https://softwareengineering.stackexchange.com/
Source Link
Community Bot
Community Bot
  • 1

I think that this is a bad example of an interview question, but for a different reason. A linked list is such a simple concept that to know what it is is to know how to implement it. If the person doesn't know what a linked list is, then you have to explain how it works, and in doing so you give away the answer without discovering anything about whether or not they know how to solve problemswhether or not they know how to solve problems. So the question is reducible to "do you already know what a linked list is and how it works?", which tells you nothing useful about their suitability as a programmer.

I think that this is a bad example of an interview question, but for a different reason. A linked list is such a simple concept that to know what it is is to know how to implement it. If the person doesn't know what a linked list is, then you have to explain how it works, and in doing so you give away the answer without discovering anything about whether or not they know how to solve problems. So the question is reducible to "do you already know what a linked list is and how it works?", which tells you nothing useful about their suitability as a programmer.

I think that this is a bad example of an interview question, but for a different reason. A linked list is such a simple concept that to know what it is is to know how to implement it. If the person doesn't know what a linked list is, then you have to explain how it works, and in doing so you give away the answer without discovering anything about whether or not they know how to solve problems. So the question is reducible to "do you already know what a linked list is and how it works?", which tells you nothing useful about their suitability as a programmer.

Source Link
Mason Wheeler
Mason Wheeler
  • 83k
  • 24
  • 236
  • 311

I think that this is a bad example of an interview question, but for a different reason. A linked list is such a simple concept that to know what it is is to know how to implement it. If the person doesn't know what a linked list is, then you have to explain how it works, and in doing so you give away the answer without discovering anything about whether or not they know how to solve problems. So the question is reducible to "do you already know what a linked list is and how it works?", which tells you nothing useful about their suitability as a programmer.